Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A review of the films I've seen this past week.FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL... (2012)
Two girls who hate each other (Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller, who co-wrote) end up sharing an apartment with one another and, in order to make money, start their own phone sex line. As their line becomes a success, they become closer and closer friends. This is sort of a female version of Superbad--not similar in plot, but in its approach and its humor. It's a lot of crude, graphic jokes, but the friendship at the core of the film is presented as very sweet and sincere. It's raunchy, but it's sweet and the two actresses are funny (particularly Ari Graynor, whom I want to see a lot more of). ***

What I think is interesting about this movie, away from the plot, is how mixed the reviews are. I feel like if the movie had starred two of the guys who make cameos in this flick, like Seth Rogen and Ken Marino, a number of critics would have taken more seriously. But starring and written by women, funny or no, it sort of gets dismissed as too raunchy or trying too hard, when this kind of thing feels more organic to me than a lot of comedies that star women, because these are the kinds of women I've always grown up around or been friends with. Not that For a Good Time, Call... is an insta-classic, but I had a much better time with it than a lot of the weirdly offended reviews implied. And that goes beyond the simple "I just didn't find it funny" reviews. A lot of the reviews were just so annoyed at the idea of women trying to make a raunchy comedy.

(Incidentally, that's the reason I'm still suspicious of a lot of reviews of 2 Broke Girls. Maybe you don't find it funny. Maybe you think a lot of it is lame. There is a lot about it that's lame. But I've also read a lot of reviews that come down on the side of "Jesus Christ, women try too hard to be funny.")